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National Park Service Will Review Trademark Applications Filed In Connection With Grand Canyon Businesses

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The National Park Service will review efforts by Xanterra Parks & Resorts to claim trademarks to Grand Canyon properties, including the El Tovar Hotel/NPS

Efforts by Xanterra Parks & Resorts to trademark the names of commercial businesses on the South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona will be examined by the National Park Service once their applications are published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for review.

The concessionaire applied for the trademarks in October and November, just months before its Grand Canyon contract expired. (Xanterra since has received a temporary one-year contract to continue running the South Rim concessions, including Phantom Ranch, while the Park Service works to award a 15-year contract for the operations.)

Trademarks applied for are to the words "Phantom Ranch," "Bright Angel Lodge," "Kachina Lodge," "Yavapai Lodge," "Maswick Lodge," "Red Horse Cabin," "Arizona Room," "Lookout Studio," "Buckey O'Neill Cabin," "Thunderbird Lodge," "Trailer Village," "Hopi House," "Hermit's Rest," and "Desert View Watchtower."

"The National Park Service is aware that Xanterra has filed a number of trademark applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Once their applications are published by the USPTO for comment we will review them," Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olsen said Tuesday in an email. "The National Park Service will oppose any trademark applications that we believe are inconsistent with the rights or legal interests of the United States."

The issue of trademarking words attached to properties in the National Park System arose last year when the Park Service released a prospectus for a 15-year contract involving concessions at Yosemite National Park in California. During the process, Delaware North Co., which has held the concessions business in Yosemite since 1993, notified the Park Service that it held "intellectual property" rights in the form of trademarks attached to lodgings in the park, including the Wawona Hotel and The Ahawhnee Hotel.

If Delaware North is unsuccessful in bidding for the new contract, the company said it would seek $51 million to relinquish those marks, and other intellectual property, to the new concessionaire. That led the Park Service to say it would allow a concessionaire other than Delaware North to propose name changes to the facilities, which in some cases have been in operation for more than a century under the same name.

In the Xanterra matter, the Patent and Trademark Office has until three months after the applications were filed to assign them to an "examining attorney" who will review the applications.

If the examining attorney raises no objections to registration, or if the applicant overcomes all objections, the examining attorney will approve the mark for publication in the Official Gazette, a weekly publication of the USPTO.  The USPTO will send a notice of publication to the applicant stating the date of publication.  After the mark is published in the Official Gazette, any party who believes it may be damaged by registration of the mark has thirty (30) days from the publication date to file either an opposition to registration or a request to extend the time to oppose.  An opposition is similar to a proceeding in a federal court, but is held before the TTAB.  If no opposition is filed or if the opposition is unsuccessful, the application enters the next stage of the registration process.

 

Comments

Wow, what bad public relations these concessionnaires are creating for themselves. It's hard to believe they are taking care of the facilities in the parks when they are engaged in such a naked play for money.


The whole thing is just a giant pissing contest between the overinflated egos of NPS and the concessionaires.  Neither cares about the visitors nor those of us employed in the parks.


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